Look Who's Back on TV

Ted Danson, Jessica Lange and Kelsey Grammer are just a few of the familiar 50+ faces on TV this fall

Robert Carlyle stars as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold in Once Upon a Time. — ABC/Jeff Petry

ROBERT CARLYLE, 50: The Scottish actor, perhaps best known for his role in the movie The Full Monty, has vast range. In ABC's new Once Upon a Time he plays two roles: the fairly normal-looking Mr. Gold of our world and the snarling. scary, soothsaying Rumplestiltskin in Storybrooke, where all those fairy tales, it turns out, were true. Clearly, Carlyle is having a good time. With the creators of Lost behind it, the series is packed with mythology they're hoping will prove addictive.

Diane Ladd stars in HBO's Enlightened. — Nicola Goode/HBO

DIANE LADD, 78: The three-time Oscar nominee plays mother to her real-life daughter, Laura Dern, 44, in Laura's quirky HBO comedy, Enlightened. It has Laura as a corporate executive who has a breakdown, goes on a retreat and returns "healed" with a new ambition: to live an enlightened life and serve as an "agent of change" for the people around her, like it or not. Diane takes Laura in as a house guest after her crisis. Enlightened also features Luke Wilson in his first regular TV role, as Laura's husband.